Cognitive:Students will be more aware of the force of emotions in human life. Students will recognize that positive human emotions are stronger than negative human emotions. They will understand that it is possible to control one’s emotions.
Affective:Students will be grateful that positive emotions are stronger than negative ones. Students will want to cultivate more positive emotions in their lives. Students will want to let reason guide their emotions.
Behavioral:Students will identify and describe different emotions. Students will apply the rule that, in matters of love, it is better to follow the head rather than the heart.
Class Session 1
Materials Needed:
Photos, movie or magazine pictures or posters of people showing a variety of emotions
Give the students time to read Chapter 1 in class. From now on, the chapters are to be read ahead of time, as work outside of class or as homework.
Mention that this chapter is about human emotional life. Note that emotions affect us physically, as the chapter points out. Ask students to name some ways in which pleasure, fear, and anger—the three main human emotions named in the chapter—express themselves physically in a person.
Mention that, according to experts, pleasure is much stronger than fear and anger. Explain that this is good news for world peace! If negative feelings of fear and anger can be overcome by positive feelings, then there is definitely hope that people one day can live together in peace.
Explain that happy families experience more positive emotions, or pleasures, together than they do negative emotions. Families have to make effort to spend enjoyable times together in order to build up experiences of good feelings.
Emphasize that when we speak of positive emotions or pleasure, we are not just speaking of passing pleasures of the flesh. We are speaking primarily of pleasures of the mind and heart, which may be related to a physical experience but are not just the physical experience itself.
Point out the list of positive feelings in their student books:
1. Religious feelings: the joy of coming closer to God.
2. Altruistic feelings: the result (or cause) of helping others.
3. Feelings of companionship; an emotional attitude toward those we feel close to and comfortable with.
4. Feelings of satisfaction: the result of successfully completing a task.
5. Feelings of exhilaration: the result of successfully overcoming barriers, dangers, or difficulties.
6. Romantic feelings: an attraction to someone of the opposite sex, involving tenderness.
7. Feelings of intellectual excitement: the stimulation of learning something new, discovering a new theory, inventing a new machine, or solving a complicated intellectual puzzle.
8. Aesthetic feelings: appreciating the beauty of nature or art.
9. Sexual feelings: when in an intimate physical relationship.
Pass out, or mount on the board, the pictures or photos or magazine cutouts you have brought to class. Using these photos, ask students to do the Exercises: “Identifying Human Emotion” in their student books. The pictures will aid the students in answering questions 1 and 3.
Exercises: “Identifying Human Emotion”
1. Look at a picture that expresses a strong emotional experience and try to describe the emotions felt by those in the picture.
2. Think of the most positive emotional experience of your childhood. What was its cause? How do you feel today when you think about it?
3. Observe the people around you and try to identify the kinds of feelings they are experiencing—positive or negative. Which ones do you see more often?
Encourage students to read and do the Reflection Exercise: “Checking Our Emotions” before the next class session.
Reflection Exercise: “Checking Our Emotions”
During the week, record all the situations in which you experienced strong emotions. Find the words that most accurately characterize those feelings. At the end of the week look through your notes and identify those emotions that were most dominant. Are you satisfied with the result, or would you like to change something in yourself? End the class by saying that emotions are a major force in human life and relationships, and we do well to understand more about them.
Class Session 2
Open the class by explaining that the class will continue to focus on human emotions today. Ask students if they believe people can control their emotions or if there are some emotions too powerful to control. Mention that love is often considered an emotion that is hard to control. Ask students to name or sing love songs about being “crazy” about someone, or “losing my mind” about someone or “losing control” over someone. This can be a lot of fun!
After students have discussed this, mention that anger also is often considered an almost uncontrollable emotion. Yet scientists have discovered that positive emotions—like compassion and forgiveness—can blot out and melt away anger. Explain that the rational mind can control even intense emotions. Point out, for instance, that most of us have felt hatred at one point and wanted to “murder” someone. Yet the rational, reasonable mind told us, “No, the consequences of that would be too great. I would go to jail. My family and future would be ruined.” Or our rational and reasonable mind might tell us, “That isn't right—no matter what the other person has done to me, I won't do so great a wrong myself.”
Have them imagine for a moment that they gave in to their passionate anger or hatred and actually murdered someone. What would the rest of their lives be like because of that one moment of lack of control? Point out that in matters of love, it is also very important to control emotions with our rationality, because love—like anger—is hard to control and also can have lifelong impact. Have students read the story in their student books “Lucy Learns a Lesson.”
Lucy Learns a Lesson
Lucy was absolutely crazy about Anton. He was so cute! And funny and nice. The wonderful thing was, Anton seemed to feel the same way about her. She was on “cloud nine.” The couple met constantly throughout the school day and said they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
But something puzzled Lucy. Anton could never see her on weekends. Anton told her he was busy with his family on weekends.
Soon, though, friends started mentioning that they had seen Anton on the weekend with a blonde girl named Marietta from another school. They saw him in the park with her, at the movies, and window-shopping downtown together. They couldn't be sure, but they thought the couple had been holding hands.
Anton got mad when Lucy brought it up. He said that Marietta was a friend of one of his cousins. “You're just jealous!” he accused her.
Upset, Lucy turned to her aunt for advice. She really wanted to believe Anton. Maybe he and Marietta weren't holding hands. Maybe they were just in a group of cousins together. Was she just being jealous, like Anton said?
When she heard that several of Lucy's classmates had seen Anton with Marietta on several different occasions, Lucy's aunt said it didn't sound to her like Anton was being completely truthful. Why did he never ask Lucy along on these group outings with his cousins if it was okay for Marietta, who was also no relation, to be there? Lucy's aunt advised Lucy to cool off her relationship with Anton a bit and take a good, hard look at the situation.
It was painful, but Lucy explained to Anton that she needed some time and distance from their relationship. She did not accuse him but said she needed to work some things out on her own. If she was too jealous, like he said, she needed some time to work through that.
Lucy went through several lonely and painful months, but when things got too bad, she went to talk to her aunt. Her aunt strengthened her by saying things like, “You need to protect your heart,” and “Don’t let him play you along.”
It turned out Anton had been secretly going steady with Marietta for a long time, all during the time he was “boyfriend and girlfriend” with Lucy. The only reason he hung around with Lucy at school was because Marietta went to a different school.
Lucy was glad she had listened to her aunt. The voice of reason had won over her emotions. It was painful to “lose” Anton, but Lucy had the pride of knowing that she had ended with dignity a situation that was unfair to her.
When students have finished rereading the story, ask them if this is a very unusual situation or if it has happened to them or to someone they know. Mention that such things are actually quite common. What if Lucy had been having sex with Anton—or had become pregnant with his child, thinking that he loved her alone and would marry her? How much harder and more painful the whole situation would have been—and it was already painful enough!
Emphasize again that, in matters of love, it is far better to lead with the head rather than the heart until trust and commitment have been established. The advice of elders is also important, for they are seeing clearly, without emotion, and with the wisdom of their years. Lucy is blinded by infatuation with Anton, but her aunt can see clearly. With her aunt's reason guiding her, Lucy is able to get out of a bad situation with less pain and loneliness than she would have felt if she had let the relationship go on any longer or become more physically intimate.
Ask students to review the whole chapter by answering the Questions for Reflection in their student books. They may refer back to the chapter in order to find the correct answers.
Questions for Reflection
1. What are the three basic human emotions?
2. What are some of the positive feelings we may experience in life?
3. How are negative emotions expressed in family life?
4. What feelings provide for family happiness?
5. Can our minds control our feelings? Give an example.
6. How can sexual relations lead to negative emotions?
7. What is the best way to practice for true love in marriage?
Lesson Objectives
Cognitive: Students will be more aware of the force of emotions in human life. Students will recognize that positive human emotions are stronger than negative human emotions. They will understand that it is possible to control one’s emotions.
Affective: Students will be grateful that positive emotions are stronger than negative ones. Students will want to cultivate more positive emotions in their lives. Students will want to let reason guide their emotions.
Behavioral: Students will identify and describe different emotions. Students will apply the rule that, in matters of love, it is better to follow the head rather than the heart.
Class Session 1
Materials Needed:
Photos, movie or magazine pictures or posters of people showing a variety of emotions
Give the students time to read Chapter 1 in class. From now on, the chapters are to be read ahead of time, as work outside of class or as homework.
Mention that this chapter is about human emotional life. Note that emotions affect us physically, as the chapter points out. Ask students to name some ways in which pleasure, fear, and anger—the three main human emotions named in the chapter—express themselves physically in a person.
Mention that, according to experts, pleasure is much stronger than fear and anger. Explain that this is good news for world peace! If negative feelings of fear and anger can be overcome by positive feelings, then there is definitely hope that people one day can live together in peace.
Explain that happy families experience more positive emotions, or pleasures, together than they do negative emotions. Families have to make effort to spend enjoyable times together in order to build up experiences of good feelings.
Emphasize that when we speak of positive emotions or pleasure, we are not just speaking of passing pleasures of the flesh. We are speaking primarily of pleasures of the mind and heart, which may be related to a physical experience but are not just the physical experience itself.
Point out the list of positive feelings in their student books:
1. Religious feelings: the joy of coming closer to God.
2. Altruistic feelings: the result (or cause) of helping others.
3. Feelings of companionship; an emotional attitude toward those we feel close to and comfortable with.
4. Feelings of satisfaction: the result of successfully completing a task.
5. Feelings of exhilaration: the result of successfully overcoming barriers, dangers, or difficulties.
6. Romantic feelings: an attraction to someone of the opposite sex, involving tenderness.
7. Feelings of intellectual excitement: the stimulation of learning something new, discovering a new theory, inventing a new machine, or solving a complicated intellectual puzzle.
8. Aesthetic feelings: appreciating the beauty of nature or art.
9. Sexual feelings: when in an intimate physical relationship.
Pass out, or mount on the board, the pictures or photos or magazine cutouts you have brought to class. Using these photos, ask students to do the Exercises: “Identifying Human Emotion” in their student books. The pictures will aid the students in answering questions 1 and 3.
Exercises: “Identifying Human Emotion”
1. Look at a picture that expresses a strong emotional experience and try to describe the emotions felt by those in the picture.
2. Think of the most positive emotional experience of your childhood. What was its cause? How do you feel today when you think about it?
3. Observe the people around you and try to identify the kinds of feelings they are experiencing—positive or negative. Which ones do you see more often?
Encourage students to read and do the Reflection Exercise: “Checking Our Emotions” before the next class session.
Reflection Exercise: “Checking Our Emotions”
During the week, record all the situations in which you experienced strong emotions. Find the words that most accurately characterize those feelings. At the end of the week look through your notes and identify those emotions that were most dominant. Are you satisfied with the result, or would you like to change something in yourself? End the class by saying that emotions are a major force in human life and relationships, and we do well to understand more about them.
Class Session 2
Open the class by explaining that the class will continue to focus on human emotions today. Ask students if they believe people can control their emotions or if there are some emotions too powerful to control. Mention that love is often considered an emotion that is hard to control. Ask students to name or sing love songs about being “crazy” about someone, or “losing my mind” about someone or “losing control” over someone. This can be a lot of fun!
After students have discussed this, mention that anger also is often considered an almost uncontrollable emotion. Yet scientists have discovered that positive emotions—like compassion and forgiveness—can blot out and melt away anger. Explain that the rational mind can control even intense emotions. Point out, for instance, that most of us have felt hatred at one point and wanted to “murder” someone. Yet the rational, reasonable mind told us, “No, the consequences of that would be too great. I would go to jail. My family and future would be ruined.” Or our rational and reasonable mind might tell us, “That isn't right—no matter what the other person has done to me, I won't do so great a wrong myself.”
Have them imagine for a moment that they gave in to their passionate anger or hatred and actually murdered someone. What would the rest of their lives be like because of that one moment of lack of control? Point out that in matters of love, it is also very important to control emotions with our rationality, because love—like anger—is hard to control and also can have lifelong impact. Have students read the story in their student books “Lucy Learns a Lesson.”
Lucy Learns a Lesson
Lucy was absolutely crazy about Anton. He was so cute! And funny and nice. The wonderful thing was, Anton seemed to feel the same way about her. She was on “cloud nine.” The couple met constantly throughout the school day and said they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
But something puzzled Lucy. Anton could never see her on weekends. Anton told her he was busy with his family on weekends.
Soon, though, friends started mentioning that they had seen Anton on the weekend with a blonde girl named Marietta from another school. They saw him in the park with her, at the movies, and window-shopping downtown together. They couldn't be sure, but they thought the couple had been holding hands.
Anton got mad when Lucy brought it up. He said that Marietta was a friend of one of his cousins. “You're just jealous!” he accused her.
Upset, Lucy turned to her aunt for advice. She really wanted to believe Anton. Maybe he and Marietta weren't holding hands. Maybe they were just in a group of cousins together. Was she just being jealous, like Anton said?
When she heard that several of Lucy's classmates had seen Anton with Marietta on several different occasions, Lucy's aunt said it didn't sound to her like Anton was being completely truthful. Why did he never ask Lucy along on these group outings with his cousins if it was okay for Marietta, who was also no relation, to be there? Lucy's aunt advised Lucy to cool off her relationship with Anton a bit and take a good, hard look at the situation.
It was painful, but Lucy explained to Anton that she needed some time and distance from their relationship. She did not accuse him but said she needed to work some things out on her own. If she was too jealous, like he said, she needed some time to work through that.
Lucy went through several lonely and painful months, but when things got too bad, she went to talk to her aunt. Her aunt strengthened her by saying things like, “You need to protect your heart,” and “Don’t let him play you along.”
It turned out Anton had been secretly going steady with Marietta for a long time, all during the time he was “boyfriend and girlfriend” with Lucy. The only reason he hung around with Lucy at school was because Marietta went to a different school.
Lucy was glad she had listened to her aunt. The voice of reason had won over her emotions. It was painful to “lose” Anton, but Lucy had the pride of knowing that she had ended with dignity a situation that was unfair to her.
When students have finished rereading the story, ask them if this is a very unusual situation or if it has happened to them or to someone they know. Mention that such things are actually quite common. What if Lucy had been having sex with Anton—or had become pregnant with his child, thinking that he loved her alone and would marry her? How much harder and more painful the whole situation would have been—and it was already painful enough!
Emphasize again that, in matters of love, it is far better to lead with the head rather than the heart until trust and commitment have been established. The advice of elders is also important, for they are seeing clearly, without emotion, and with the wisdom of their years. Lucy is blinded by infatuation with Anton, but her aunt can see clearly. With her aunt's reason guiding her, Lucy is able to get out of a bad situation with less pain and loneliness than she would have felt if she had let the relationship go on any longer or become more physically intimate.
Ask students to review the whole chapter by answering the Questions for Reflection in their student books. They may refer back to the chapter in order to find the correct answers.
Questions for Reflection
1. What are the three basic human emotions?
2. What are some of the positive feelings we may experience in life?
3. How are negative emotions expressed in family life?
4. What feelings provide for family happiness?
5. Can our minds control our feelings? Give an example.
6. How can sexual relations lead to negative emotions?
7. What is the best way to practice for true love in marriage?